Elongated, strip-like film bandages are traditionally supplied rolled together into a roll. Such bandages are used in parts and the user himself judges how large a part of the bandage is required in each instance and, based on such a judgement, cuts off a suitable length of bandage. Even though the handling of such traditional, elongated strip-like film bandages generally works well, film bandages of this kind do have certain drawbacks in terms of their use. For example, it is in many cases difficult to judge how much of the roll to unwind in order to obtain the desired length of the part which is to be cut off. Since it is time-consuming and sometimes difficult to wind back an unwound part of the roll, an over-unwinding of the roll often leads to the unwound part being cut off from the roll and this cut-off part, in turn, being cut such that a part of suitable length is obtained. The part of unwanted length which is cut off from the first cut-off part is discarded. The roll shape of traditional elongated, strip-like film bandages therefore contributes to the creation of unnecessary material wastage. Furthermore, roll-shaped film bandages must be packed in such a way that the risk of the roll automatically curling up when the user pulls on one end of the bandage is eliminated, which complicates the packaging for the bandage and also contributes to the time wasted in rolling back unwound parts. A further cause of unnecessary material wastage is that at the end of traditional elongated, strip-like film bandages, i.e. when the greatest part of the roll is unwound, a lifting of the free end of the remaining length of the traditional elongated, strip-like film results in the entire length of remaining film bandage being lifted out of its packaging, which leads to material wastage unless the remaining length of the film bandage were to coincide with the length of bandage required. It is additionally pointed out that the central part of a rolled-up traditional elongated, strip-like film is often difficult or impossible to use owing to the fact that this part tries to maintain its curved, rolled-up shape. This can, of course, be combated by winding the bandage around an annular core, so that the radius of curvature for the central part of the roll is relatively large, but such a measure adds to the material costs and makes the bandage more bulky. It is pointed out that the tendency of the traditional elongated, strip-like film bandage to resume a rolled-up shape can make it more difficult to cut off unwound parts, at least at the end of the bandage, since the extracted part of the bandage must be kept taut during the cutting.
The object of the present invention is to provide an elongated, strip-like film bandage without the abovementioned drawbacks, which is easy to divide into a number of parts without creating unnecessary material wastage, does not require any complicated packaging and occupies a minimal amount of space in the packed state.